Electronic label and method for driving the same

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure provides an electronic label and a method for driving the same. The electronic label includes: a plurality of display screens; a repeater configured to receive content data to be displayed on the plurality of display screens and distribute the content data to a communicator according to a signal strength between the repeater and the communicator; the communicator configured to receive the content data from the repeater; and a controller comprising a serial data interface and configured to transmit, through the serial data interface, the content data to be displayed on the plurality of display screens and a control signal generated by the controller for controlling the plurality of display screens to the plurality of display screens respectively, so as to control the plurality of display screens to display the respective content data received according to the control signal.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No.16/828,160, filed Mar. 24, 2020, entitled “ELECTRONIC LABEL AND METHODFOR DRIVING THE SAME”, by Yunyan Xie, Bo Liu, and Lichun Chen, whichclaims priority to the Chinese Patent Application No. 201910881285.7,filed on Sep. 18, 2019, both of which are incorporated herein byreference in their entireties.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to the field of display technology, andmore particularly, to an electronic label and a method for driving thesame.

BACKGROUND

With the progress of technology and the development of Internet ofThings technology, electronic labels have been widely used. Theelectronic labels have advantages such as low power consumption andenvironmental protection, and may be connected to an offline scenedatabase through a wireless network to display relevant information inreal time and accurately. Therefore, the trend of replacing paper labelswith the electronic labels has become.

However, the electronic labels have problems such as a highmanufacturing cost and inflexible display.

SUMMARY

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided anelectronic label, comprising:

a plurality of display screens;

a repeater configured to receive content data to be displayed on theplurality of display screens and distribute the content data to acommunicator according to a signal strength between the repeater and thecommunicator;

the communicator configured to receive the content data from therepeater; and

a controller comprising a serial data interface and configured totransmit, through the serial data interface, the content data to bedisplayed on the plurality of display screens and a control signalgenerated by the controller for controlling the plurality of displayscreens to the plurality of display screens respectively, so as tocontrol the plurality of display screens to display the respectivecontent data received according to the control signal.

In some embodiments, the serial data interface comprises:

at least one selection interface configured to select at least one ofthe plurality of display screens;

a clock interface configured to transmit a synchronization clock signalto the plurality of display screens; and

a data interface configured to serially transmit the content data to bedisplayed on the plurality of display screens and the control signal tothe plurality of display screens under synchronous control of thesynchronization clock signal.

In some embodiments, the controller is further configured to:

select the plurality of display screens through the at least oneselection interface at the same time in response to the content data tobe displayed on the plurality of display screens being the same; and

sequentially select at least one of the plurality of display screensthrough the at least one selection interface in response to the contentdata to be displayed on the plurality of display screens beingdifferent.

In some embodiments, a number of the at least one selection interface isless than or equal to a number of the plurality of display screens.

In some embodiments, when a number of the at least one selectioninterface is less than a number of the plurality of display screens,selection signals transmitted through the at least one selectioninterface are encoded and decoded to generate a selection signalcorresponding to each of the plurality of display screens.

In some embodiments, each of the plurality of display screens comprisesa buffer configured to store content data received from the controllerto be displayed on the display screen.

In some embodiments, the display screens are electronic ink screens, and

the electronic label further comprises a booster circuit connected tothe electronic ink screens and configured to power on and power off theelectronic ink screens.

In some embodiments, the booster circuit is further connected to thecontroller, and is controlled by the controller to power on and poweroff the electronic ink screens.

In some embodiments, the content data comprises a type flag and an endflag, wherein the type flag is used to indicate whether the transmitteddata is content data or a control signal, and the end flag is used toindicate the end of data transmission.

In some embodiments, the communicator is further configured to receivecontrol instructions form an application installed on a mobile phone,and wherein the at least one of the plurality of display screens is tobe controlled according to the control instructions.

In some embodiments, the electronic label further comprises:

a charger interface configured to charger the electronic label.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provideda method for driving the electronic label, comprising:

receiving, by the repeater, content data to be displayed on theplurality of display screens;

distributing, by the repeater, the content data to the communicatoraccording to a signal strength between the repeater and thecommunicator;

receiving, by the communicator, the content data from the repeater;

transmitting, by the controller, through the serial data interface, thecontent data to be displayed on the plurality of display screens and acontrol signal generated by the controller for controlling the pluralityof display screens to the plurality of display screens respectively; and

displaying, by the plurality of display screens, the respective contentdata received according to the control signal.

In some embodiments, the serial data interface comprises a clockinterface, a data interface and at least one selection interface, and

wherein transmitting, by the controller, through the serial datainterface, the content data to be displayed on the plurality of displayscreens and a control signal generated by the controller for controllingthe plurality of display screens to the plurality of display screensrespectively comprises:

selecting at least one of the plurality of display screens through theat least one selection interface;

transmitting a synchronization clock signal to the plurality of displayscreens through the clock interface; and

serially transmitting the content data to be displayed on the pluralityof display screens and the control signal to the plurality of displayscreens through the data interface under synchronous control of thesynchronization clock signal.

In some embodiments, selecting at least one of the plurality of displayscreens through the at least one selection interface comprises:

selecting, by the controller, the plurality of display screens at thesame time through the at least one selection interface in response tothe content data to be displayed on the plurality of display screensbeing the same; and

sequentially selecting, by the controller, at least one of the pluralityof display screens through the at least one selection interface inresponse to the content data to be displayed on the plurality of displayscreens being different.

In some embodiments, the data content transmitted by the controllerthrough the data interface to be displayed on the selected at least onedisplay screen is serially received by the at least one display screenunder the synchronous control of the synchronization clock signal inresponse to the controller sequentially selecting at least one of theplurality of display screens through the at least one selectioninterface, until the content data to be displayed on the plurality ofdisplay screens is sequentially received by the respective displayscreens.

In some embodiments, a number of the at least one selection interface isless than or equal to a number of the plurality of display screens.

In some embodiments, when the number of the at least one selectioninterface is less than the number of the plurality of display screens,the method further comprises: encoding and decoding selection signalstransmitted through the at least one selection interface to generate aselection signal corresponding to each of the plurality of displayscreens.

In some embodiments, each of the plurality of display screens comprisesa buffer, and

before the plurality of display screens display the respective contentdata received according to the control signal, the method furthercomprises:

storing, by the plurality of display screens, the content data receivedfrom the controller to be displayed thereon in the respective buffers.

In some embodiments, the content data comprises a type flag and an endflag, wherein the type flag is used to indicate whether the transmitteddata is content data or a control signal, and the end flag is used toindicate the end of data transmission.

In some embodiments, the method for driving the electronic label furthercomprises:

receiving, by the communicator, control instructions form an applicationinstalled on a mobile phone; and wherein the at least one of theplurality of display screens is to be controlled according to thecontrol instructions.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS

The above and other purposes, features, and advantages of theembodiments of the present disclosure will become more obvious bydescribing the embodiments of the present disclosure with reference tothe accompanying drawings. It should be illustrated that throughout theaccompanying drawings, the same elements are represented by the same orsimilar reference signs. In the accompanying drawings:

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates an application scenario of anelectronic label;

FIGS. 2 A to 2C schematically illustrate structural block diagrams of anelectronic label according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 schematically illustrates a structure of a serial data interfaceof an electronic label according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 4 schematically illustrates a flowchart of a method for driving anelectronic label according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5A schematically illustrates a flowchart of a method for driving anelectronic label according to an example of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5B schematically illustrates a signal timing diagram of theexemplary method shown in FIG. 5A;

FIG. 6A schematically illustrates a flowchart of a method for driving anelectronic label according to another example of the present disclosure;and

FIG. 6B schematically illustrates a signal timing diagram of theexemplary method shown in FIG. 6A.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In order to make the purposes, technical solutions and advantages of theembodiments of the present disclosure more clear, the technicalsolutions in the embodiments of the present disclosure will be clearlyand completely described below in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings in the embodiments of the present disclosure. Obviously, theembodiments described are a part of the embodiments of the presentdisclosure instead of all the embodiments. All other embodimentsobtained by those of ordinary skill in the art based on the describedembodiments of the present disclosure without contributing any creativework are within the protection scope of the present disclosure. In thefollowing description, some specific embodiments are for illustrativepurposes only and are not to be construed as limiting the presentdisclosure, but merely examples of the embodiments of the presentdisclosure. The conventional structure or construction will be omittedwhen it may cause confusion with the understanding of the presentdisclosure. It should be illustrated that shapes and dimensions ofcomponents in the figures do not reflect true sizes and proportions, butonly illustrate contents of the embodiments of the present disclosure.

Unless otherwise defined, technical terms or scientific terms used inthe embodiments of the present disclosure should be of ordinary meaningsto those skilled in the art. “First”, “second” and similar words used inthe embodiments of the present disclosure do not represent any order,quantity or importance, but are merely used to distinguish betweendifferent constituent parts.

Furthermore, in the description of the embodiments of the presentdisclosure, the term “connected to” or “connected with” may mean thattwo components are directly connected, or that two components areconnected via one or more other components. In addition, the twocomponents may be connected or coupled by wire or wirelessly.

Further, in the description of the embodiments of the presentdisclosure, the terms “first level” and “second level” are only used todistinguish amplitudes of the two levels. For example, the followingdescription is made by taking the “first level” being a relatively highlevel and the “second level” being a relatively low level as an example.It may be understood by those skilled in the art that the presentdisclosure is not limited thereto.

The electronic labels are developed from original electronic pricelabels, and are mainly used in public places such as shopping malls,supermarkets etc. With the development of the Internet of Thingstechnology and the application of the electronic labels and theirderivatives, the diversified application of the electronic labels maybecome an inevitable trend in the development of information technology.FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary application scenario of an electroniclabel. As shown in FIG. 1, the electronic label 10 is used as anelectronic table card in an office, a media, a conference, etc.

As more and more application scenarios are developed, problems of theelectronic labels also gradually appear. On the one hand, with theincrease in the demand for display information and the increase indisplay content, the demand for the electronic labels has increasedsignificantly. Each of the electronic labels generally has a displayscreen and is driven by one driving circuit, and therefore if a largenumber of electronic labels are used, it may lead to a high cost. On theother hand, the public has more and more new requirements for displayforms and appearance etc. of the electronic labels. This requires theelectronic labels not only to update the display content in time, butalso have more flexibility and display diversity. For example, in ascenario shown in FIG. 1, it is more desirable that the electronic tablecard may display content on opposite sides. Further, according to needsin actual situations, the electronic table card may display the samecontent on the opposite sides or display different content on theopposite sides. However, there is currently no solution for theseapplications.

According to the technical solutions of the embodiments of the presentdisclosure, there is provided an electronic label, in which content datais transmitted to a plurality of display screens by a controller, whichsignificantly reduces a manufacturing cost of the electronic label. Inaddition, the content data to be displayed is transmitted to theplurality of display screens through a serial data interface of thecontroller, which may reduce a number of interfaces of the controllerand simplify data transmission between the controller and the displayscreens. Further, the display screens may display separately accordingto the respective content data received, which increases flexibility ofoperations of the electronic label.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is providedan electronic label. The electronic label according to the embodiment ofthe present disclosure may comprise a plurality of display screens. Theelectronic label according to the embodiment of the present disclosuremay further comprise a communicator configured to receive content datato be displayed on the plurality of display screens. The electroniclabel according to the embodiment of the present disclosure may furthercomprise a controller. The controller may comprise a serial datainterface. The controller is configured to transmit the content data tobe displayed on the plurality of display screens and control signalgenerated by the controller for controlling the plurality of displayscreens to the plurality of display screens through the serial datainterface, respectively, to control the plurality of display screens todisplay the respective content data received according to the controlsignal.

FIG. 2A schematically illustrates a block diagram of an electronic labelaccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG.2A, the electronic label 20 according to the embodiment of the presentdisclosure may comprise a plurality of display screens 210 ₁ to 210 _(N)and a driving circuit 220, wherein N is an integer greater than or equalto 2.

In some embodiments, the display screens may be electronic ink screens.The electronic ink screens are implemented by a display technology forsimulating papers, and therefore are also referred to as electronicpapers. Although the electronic ink screens are usually more expensivethan commonly-used display screens, since the electronic ink screenshave characteristics such as bi-stable display, the electronic ink maybe powered on during data transmission and maintain the display whenthey are powered off. Therefore, the electronic ink screens areparticularly suitable for a scenario in which static display and highrequirements for energy consumption are required, and thus areincreasingly used in the electronic labels. Of course, it may beunderstood by those skilled in the art that the embodiments of thepresent disclosure may also be applied to other general-purpose activedisplay screens (for example, Liquid Crystal (LCD) display screens orLight Emitting Diode (LED) display screens, etc.)

The driving circuit 220 is used to drive the plurality of displayscreens 210 ₁ to 210 _(N). As shown in FIG. 2A, the driving circuit 220may further comprise a power supply circuit 2201, a communicator 2202, acontroller 2203, and a memory 2204.

The power supply circuit 2201 is connected to the communicator 2202, thecontroller 2203, and the memory 2204, respectively, and is used tosupply power to the communicator 2202, the controller 2203, and thememory 2204.

The communicator 2202 is used to receive content data to be displayed onthe plurality of display screens 210 ₁ to 210 _(N) from an externalsource. The external source may be, for example, an external server, anexternal database, a cloud server, a mobile terminal, etc., and theembodiments of the present disclosure are not limited thereto. Thecommunicator 2202 may be, for example, a wireless communicationapparatus configured to perform communication based on a wirelesstransmission protocol. The wireless transmission protocol comprises, butnot limited to, Bluetooth, WIFI, Zigbee, or mobile communicationprotocols based on technologies such as 3G, 4G etc. After receiving thecontent data to be displayed on the plurality of display screens 210 ₁to 210 _(N), the communicator 2202 temporarily stores the content datain the memory 2204.

The memory 2204 is used to temporarily store the received content data,and may be configured as a volatile storage medium or a non-volatilestorage medium. In addition, the memory 2204 is further used totemporarily store instructions required by the controller 2203 and datagenerated by the controller 2203 during operations.

In some embodiments, the driving circuit 220 may further comprise abooster circuit 2205. When the display screens are electronic inkscreens, the booster circuit may be configured in the driving circuit220 to provide a power supply voltage to the electronic ink screens. Asdescribed above, the electronic ink screens may be powered on duringdata transmission and may be powered off and display after the datatransmission. Therefore, the booster circuit 2205 is configured in thedriving circuit 220, so that power may be supplied by the boostercircuit 2205 to the electronic ink screens before the content data to bedisplayed on the electronic ink screens is transmitted thereto, andpower-on of the electronic ink screens ends after display of the contentdata is refreshed. As shown in FIG. 2A, the booster circuit 2205 isconnected to the power supply circuit 2201, which may be used to supplypower to the booster circuit 2205. The booster circuit 2205 is furtherconnected to the plurality of display screens 210 ₁ to 210 _(N) (i.e.,electronic ink screens) respectively, to power on and power off theelectronic ink screens. The booster circuit 2205 is further connected tothe controller 2203, and the controller 2203 controls the above power-onand power-off processes, which is beneficial to reducing the energyconsumption of the entire electronic label.

When the display screens are general-purpose active display screens (forexample, LCD display screens or LED display screens etc.), it isnecessary to continuously supply power to the display screens during thedisplay process thereof. Therefore, this type of display screens usuallyeach have a power supply (for example, a battery slot) integratedtherein, and the display screens are supplied with power by themselves.Therefore, the booster circuit 2205 may not be provided in the drivingcircuit 220.

The controller 2203 controls the overall operation of the drivingcircuit 220, comprising controlling a communication process of thecommunicator 2202, controlling a storage process of the memory 2204,controlling power-on and power-off processes of the booster circuit2205, etc. In addition, the controller 2203 further comprises a serialdata interface, through which the content data to be displayed on theplurality of display screens 210 ₁ to 210 _(N) and the control signalgenerated by the controller 2203 for controlling the plurality ofdisplay screens 210 ₁ to 210 _(N) may be transmitted to the plurality ofdisplay screens 210 ₁ to 210 _(N), to control the plurality of displayscreens 210 ₁ to 210 _(N) to display the respective content datareceived according to the control signal. Detailed description will begiven below in combination with specific embodiments.

FIG. 2B schematically illustrates a block diagram of an electronic labelaccording to another embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown inFIG. 2B, the driving circuit 220 of the electronic label 20 may furtherinclude a repeater 2206 and 2 charger interface 2207.

The repeater 2206 is connected to the communicator 2202 and the powersupply circuit 2201. The repeater 2206 is configured to receive contentdata to be displayed on the plurality of display screens 210 ₁ to 210_(N) and distribute the content data to the communicator 2202 accordingto a signal strength between the repeater 2206 and the communicator2202. The communicator 2202 is configured to receive the content datafrom the repeater 2206. The power supply circuit 2201 is used to supplypower to the repeater 2206.

According to the embodiments of the present disclosure, the content datamay be received by the repeater 2206 in batch, and distributed accordingto the signal strength between the repeater 2206 and the communicator2202, thereby ensuring a reliable receipt of the content data andreducing power consumption.

The charger interface 2207 is configured to charger the electronic label20. In some embodiments, the charger interface 2207 is a type Cinterface. According to the embodiments of the present disclosure, theworking duration of the electronic label 20 may be increased and themaintenance cost of the electronic label 20 may be reduced.

According to the embodiments of the present disclosure, the communicator2202 is further configured to receive control instructions form anapplication installed on a mobile phone. The control instructions may beused to control the at least one of the plurality of display screens 210₁ to 210 _(N). Referring to FIG. 2C, the electronic label 201 (thecommunicator 2202) may communicate with the mobile phone 202 (anapplication), and receive control instructions form the mobile phone202. In some embodiments, when there are individual displays that needto be updated separately, they may be updated directly by using themobile phone 202. According to the embodiments of the presentdisclosure, a usage range of the electronic labels may be greatlyenlarged.

In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, the display screens 210 ₁ to210 _(N) may further comprise respective buffers 2101 ₁ to 2101 _(N).The buffers 2101 ₁ to 2101 _(N) are configured to store the content datareceived from the controller 2203 to be displayed on the display screens210 ₁ to 210 _(N) respectively.

In the embodiment of the present disclosure, the content data to bedisplayed is transmitted to the plurality of display screens 210 ₁ to210 _(N) through the serial data interface of the controller 2203. Theserial data interface may be a group of data interfaces. A structure ofthe serial data interface and a connection relationship between thecontroller 2203 and the plurality of display screens 210 ₁ to 210 _(N)through the serial data interface will be described in detail below withreference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 3 schematically illustrates a structure of a serial data interfaceof an electronic label according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure. As shown in FIG. 3, the serial data interface 30 maycomprise at least one selection interface, which is used to transmitselection signals CS₁ to CS_(M) respectively, so as to select at leastone of the plurality of display screens 210 ₁ to 210 _(N). An interfacedata width of each of the selection signal interfaces may be 1 bit. Insome embodiments, a first level (for example, a high level) may be setas an valid level of the selection signals CS₁ to CS_(M), that is, whena selection signal is at the first level (for example, the high level),a corresponding display screen is selected. It may be understood bythose skilled in the art that a second level (for example, a low level)may also be set as the valid level of the selection signals CS₁ toCS_(M), that is, when a selection signal is at the second level (forexample, the low level), a corresponding display screen is selected. Theselected display screen may receive content data and a control signaltransmitted by the controller 2203. The unselected display screens maynot receive content data and a control signal transmitted by thecontroller 2203.

In the example shown in FIG. 3, for example, when the display screen 210₁ is selected using the selection signal CS₁, only the display screen210 ₁ may receive content data and a control signal transmitted by thecontroller 2203 and transmit a signal to the controller 2203, andremaining unselected display screens (for example, the display screens210 ₂ to 210 _(N)) may not receive content data and a control signaltransmitted by the controller 2203, and may not transmit signals to thecontroller 2203.

As shown in FIG. 3, the selection interfaces through which the selectionsignals CS₁ to CS_(M) are transmitted are connected to respective chipselection ports CS of the plurality of display screens 210 ₁ to 210_(N). It should be illustrated that a number M of the selectioninterfaces may be less than or equal to a number N of the displayscreens 210 ₁ to 210 _(N), that is, M≤N. When the number of theselection interfaces is equal to the number N of the display screens 210₁ to 210 _(N) (i.e., M=N), the selection interfaces may be directlyconnected to the respective chip selection ports CS of the displayscreens in one-to-one correspondence. A scenario where M=N is shown inFIG. 3, in which a selection interface through which the selectionsignal CS_(M) is transmitted is connected to a chip selection port CS ofthe display screen 210 _(N).

In some embodiments, when the number M of the selection interfaces isless than the number N of the display screens 210 ₁ to 210 _(N), each ofthe selection interfaces may not be directly connected to a chipselection port of one of the display screens. In this case, thefollowing methods may be used to realize connection between theselection interfaces and the display screens and the selection of thedisplay screens.

For example, when the number M of the selection interfaces is less thanthe number N of the display screens 210 ₁ to 210 _(N), the selectionsignals CS₁ to CS_(M) in the selection interfaces may be encoded anddecoded to generate selection signals corresponding to the respectivedisplay screens. For example, if the number of the selection interfacesis 3, three selection signals CS₁ to CS₃ in the three selectioninterfaces may be binary-coded to further obtain eight selection signals(which may be denoted as CS′₁, CS′₂, CS′₃, CS′₄, CS′₅, CS′₆, CS′₇ andCS′₈ respectively). The above eight selection signals are obtainedthrough a decoding process by adding a decoder, which may realizeselection of eight display screens. This helps to reduce a number ofports of the controller 2203, thereby driving more display screens.

As another example, when the number M of the selection interfaces isless than the number N of the display screens 210 ₁ to 210 _(N),processing may be performed based on actual situations. If at least someof the plurality of display screens 210 ₁ to 210 _(N) always display thesame content, the plurality of display screens 210 ₁ to 210 _(N) may bedivided into several groups, display screens in each group display thesame content, and display screens in different groups may displaydifferent content. Thereby, the same selection interface may beconnected to all display screens in the same group at the same time, sothat these display screens may be selected at the same time. In thisway, more display screens may be selected using fewer selection signalswhile simplifying a transmission operation of the content data.

As shown in FIG. 3, the serial data interface may further comprise aclock interface. The clock interface may transmit a synchronizationclock signal CLK to the plurality of display screens 210 ₁ to 210 _(N).The synchronization clock signal CLK is used for synchronization betweendata transmission and data reception between the controller 2203 and theplurality of electronic screens 210 ₁ to 210 _(N). According to someembodiments, the data transmission and the data reception may be set tobe performed synchronously on a rising edge of the synchronization clocksignal CLK. It may be understood by those skilled in the art that thedata transmission and the data reception may be set to be performedsynchronously on a falling edge of the synchronization clock signal CLK.

As shown in FIG. 3, the clock interface is connected to thecorresponding ports (for example, CLK ports of serial peripheralinterfaces SPI) of all the plurality of display screens 210 ₁ to 210_(N) at the same time. For example, an interface data width of the clockinterfaces is also 1 bit.

As shown in FIG. 3, the serial data interface may further comprise adata interface DATA, which is a serial data interface having aninterface data width of 1 bit. The data interface DATA is configured toserially transmit the content data to be displayed on the plurality ofdisplay screens 210 ₁ to 210 _(N) and the control signal undersynchronous control of the synchronization clock signal CLK.

As shown in FIG. 3, the data interface DATA may be connected to thecorresponding ports of all the plurality of display screens 210 ₁ to 210_(N) at the same time, for example, Master Output Slave Input (MOSI)ports of the serial peripheral interfaces SPI. It should be illustratedthat only the MOSI ports of the serial peripheral interfaces SPI,instead of the overall structure of the SPIs, are shown on therespective display screens in FIG. 3. The controller 2203 may furtherimplement conversion from parallel data to serial data in the drivingcircuit 220. In addition, built-in logics in the serial peripheralinterfaces SPI for the display screens may complete the conversion fromserial data to parallel data in the plurality of display screens 210 ₁to 210 _(N). In addition, since the data interface DATA has a functionof transmitting both the content data and the control signal, differenttype flags need to be set to distinguish the content data and thecontrol signal. The controller 2203 may add the type flags in the datato be transmitted according to different types of the data. In addition,when the controller 2203 transmits the content data and the controlsignal to the display screens, the controller 2203 firstly transmits thetype flags.

The controller 2203 may be implemented by a general-purpose element, forexample, a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a Field Programmable GateArray (FPGA) etc., and the embodiments of the present disclosure are notlimited thereto. The content data and the control signal are transmittedby using a group of serial data interfaces comprising at least oneselection interface, a clock interface, and a data interface, which mayeffectively reduce a cost of the driving circuit while simplifying theoperation.

FIG. 4 schematically illustrates a flowchart of a method for driving anelectronic label according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.As shown in FIG. 4, the driving method may comprise the following steps.

In step S410, a communicator receives content data to be displayed on aplurality of display screens.

In step S420, the controller transmits the content data to be displayedon the plurality of display screens and a control signal generated bythe controller for controlling the plurality of display screens to theplurality of display screens through a serial data interfacerespectively.

In step S430, the plurality of display screens display the respectivecontent data received according to the control signal.

According to the above embodiments, the serial data interface of thecontroller 2203 may comprise a clock interface, a data interface, and atleast one selection interface. Therefore, transmitting, by thecontroller 2203, the content data to be displayed on the plurality ofdisplay screens and the control signal generated by the controller forcontrolling the plurality of display screens to the plurality of displayscreens through the serial data interface respectively may specificallycomprise: selecting at least one of the plurality of display screensthrough the at least one selection interface, transmitting asynchronization clock signal to the plurality of display screens throughthe clock interface, and serially transmitting the content data to bedisplayed on the plurality of display screens and the control signal tothe plurality of display screens through the data interface undersynchronous control of the synchronization clock signal.

According to the embodiments of the present disclosure, in step S410,the content data to be displayed on the plurality of display screens isreceived by the repeater 2206, and is distributed to the communicator2202 according to a signal strength between the repeater 2206 and thecommunicator 2202.

According to the embodiments of the present disclosure, the communicator2202 may further receive control instructions form an applicationinstalled on a mobile phone. The control instructions may be used tocontrol the at least one of the plurality of display screens 210 ₁ to210 _(N).

A process of driving the plurality of display screens 210 ₁ to 210 _(N)by the driving circuit 220 in order to display the same content ordifferent content on the plurality of display screens 210 ₁ to 210 _(N)will be described in detail below with reference to FIGS. 4 to 6B.

In some embodiments, when the content data to be displayed on theplurality of display screens are the same, in response to the contentdata to be displayed on the plurality of display screens being the same,the controller 2203 may select the plurality of display screens throughthe at least one selection interface at the same time. The above datatransmission process will be described in detail below with reference toFIGS. 5A and 5B. Here, FIG. 5A schematically illustrates a flowchart ofa method for driving an electronic label according to an example of thepresent disclosure, and FIG. 5B schematically illustrates a signaltiming diagram of the exemplary method shown in FIG. 5A, for example.

As shown in FIG. 5A, the exemplary method may comprise the followingsteps.

In step S510, serial data signals in a serial data interface areinitialized. For example, selection signals CS₁ to CS_(M) may be set toa second level (for example, a low level shown in FIG. 5B), so that thedisplay screens are not selected. The data interface may be set to be ina high impedance state. Data transmission may be set to be performed on,for example, a rising edge of a synchronization clock signal CLK. It maybe understood by those skilled in the art that the data transmission mayalso be set to be performed on, for example, a falling edge of thesynchronization clock signal CLK.

FIG. 5B schematically illustrates a signal timing diagram of theexemplary method shown in FIG. 5A, and description will be made bytaking two display screens 210 ₁ and 210 ₂ being connected as anexample. As shown in FIG. 5B, in an initial period T0, the controller2203 initializes a serial data interface. Here, a selection signal CS₁connected to the display screen 210 ₁ and a selection signal CS₂connected to the display screen 210 ₂ are set to a low level at the sametime. A data interface is set to be in a high impedance state.

It should be illustrated that before the serial data signals areinitialized, other modules of the driving circuit 220 may also beinitialized. For example, a current ambient temperature may be acquiredthrough a temperature sensor module (included in the display screens oroutside the display screens) during the initialization phase, and thendata of the ambient temperature is transmitted to the display screens asa control signal parameter. This is because for the electronic labelhaving electronic ink screens as the display screens, different displaymodes may be selected according to the current ambient temperature, sothat the content data is displayed more clearly.

Next, in step S520, all the display screens 210 ₁ to 210 _(N) areselected by setting all the selection signals CS₁ to CS_(M) to a validlevel, that is, a first level (for example, a high level shown in FIG.5B).

As shown in FIG. 5B, at a certain time after the first period T0, thecontroller 2203 sets the selection signal CS₁ connected to the displayscreen 210 ₁ and the selection signal CS₂ connected to the displayscreen 210 ₂ to a high level at the same time, and thereby the displayscreens 210 ₁ and 210 ₂ are selected at the same time.

Then, in step S530, the content data is serially transmitted through thedata interface DATA under control of the synchronization clock signalCLK.

As shown in FIG. 5B, the content data is transmitted during a firstperiod T1. In addition to valid content data to be displayed, thecontent data may also comprise a type flag and an end flag. As describedabove, the type flag is used to indicate whether the transmitted data iscontent data or a control signal. In this example, the type flagindicates that the transmitted data is content data. The end flag isused to indicate the end of the data transmission. The first period T1comprises duration of several synchronization clock signals, wherein thevalid content data is transmitted on a rising edge of each of thesynchronization clock signal pulses, and the display screens 210 ₁ and210 ₂ receive the valid content data at the same time, and store thereceived valid content data in respective buffers. A length of the firstperiod T1 is determined by a data amount of the valid content data to betransmitted.

Then, in step S540, the controller 2203 acquires state signals fed backby the display screens 210 ₁ and 210 ₂ during a preset time period. Eachof the state signals indicates whether a corresponding display 210 ₁ or210 ₂ has completed data transmission and is ready for refreshingdisplay. For example, when the state signal from the display screen 2101is at the first level (for example, the high level shown in FIG. 5B), itindicates that the display screen 210 ₁ has completed data transmission,and may refresh the display. When the state signal from the displayscreen 210 ₁ is at the second level (for example, the low level shown inFIG. 5B), it indicates that the display screen 210 ₁ has not completeddata transmission, and may not refresh the display.

As shown in the example of FIG. 5B, the state signal from the displayscreen 210 ₁ is a state signal 1 which, for example, is transmitted tothe controller 2203 through a state signal output port of the displayscreen 210 ₁ connected to the controller 2203. For example, a statesignal output port may be a port of one of the plurality of displayscreens 210 ₁ to 210 _(N), and is mainly used to feed back a state ofthe display screen. The state signal of the display screen 210 ₂ is astate signal 2, which is transmitted to the controller 2203 through astate signal output port of the display screen 210 ₂ connected to thecontroller 2203. The display screen 210 ₁ sets the state signal 1 to ahigh level after completing the data transmission with the controller2203. The display screen 210 ₂ sets the state signal 2 to a high levelafter completing the data transmission with the controller 2203. Thecontroller 2203 collects the state signal 1 and the state signal 2during a second period T2.

Next, in step S550, the controller 2203 determines whether all statesignals are at a high level, and if so, in step S560, the controller2203 serially transmits the control signal through the data interfaceDATA under control of the synchronization clock signal CLK.

As shown in FIG. 5B, when the collected state signal 1 and state signal2 are both at a high level, the controller 2203 determines that thedisplay screens 210 ₁ and 210 ₂ are ready for refreshing display.Therefore, during a third period T3, the control signal is transmittedto the display screens 210 ₁ and 210 ₂ at the same time. The controlsignal may comprise a refresh signal for refreshing the display. In someembodiments, the control signal may further comprise temperature dataand other control parameters. Similarly to a data format of the contentdata, the control signal comprises a valid control signal, a type flag,and an end flag. The type flag is used to indicate that the transmitteddata is a control signal, and the end flag is used to indicate the endof data transmission. The third period T3 may comprise duration ofseveral synchronization clock signals. The control signal is transmittedon a rising edge of each of the synchronization clock signal pulses, andthe display screens 210 ₁ and 210 ₂ receive the control signal at thesame time. Similarly, a length of the third period T3 is determined by adata amount of control signals to be transmitted.

After the control signal is transmitted completely, the controller 2203sets the selection signals CS₁ and CS₂ to a low level, and the datatransmission between the controller 2203 and the display screens 210 ₁and 210 ₂ ends.

Next, in step S570, the display screens 210 ₁ and 210 ₂ refresh thedisplay respectively according to the received control signal. When thedisplay screens 210 ₁ and 210 ₂ refresh the display, the display screens210 ₁ and 210 ₂ reset the respective state signal 1 and state signal 2to a low level at the same time, as shown in FIG. 5B.

If the controller 2203 determines in step S550 that not all the statesignals are at a high level, the controller 2203 returns to step S530 toretransmit the content data.

For example, if the state signal 2 does not become a high level duringthe second period T2 in FIG. 5B, the controller 2203 may retransmit thecontent data instead of the control signal during the third period T3. Aprocess of transmitting the content data is as described in step S530,and will not be repeated here.

In addition, it may be understood by those skilled in the art that thecontroller 2203 may select to retransmit the content data to the displayscreen 210 ₂ only during the third period T3. At this time, thecontroller 2203 needs to firstly set the selection signal CS₁ to a lowlevel before transmitting the content data, that is, the display screen210 ₁ does not receive the content data again. Then, when the controlsignal needs to be transmitted to the display screens 210 ₁ and 210 ₂,the selection signal CS₁ is set to a high level before the controlsignal is transmitted.

According to the embodiments of the present disclosure, when the samecontent is to be displayed on the plurality of display screens 210 ₁ to210 _(N), the content data is transmitted to all the plurality ofdisplay screens 210 ₁ to 210 _(N) through the same synchronization clocksignal interface and content/control data signal interface at the sametime, which reduces a cost of the system while simplifying the operationof driving the plurality of display screens 210 ₁ to 210 _(N).

In some other embodiments, when the content data to be displayed on theplurality of display screens is different, in response to the contentdata to be displayed on the plurality of display screens beingdifferent, the controller 2203 may sequentially selects at least one ofthe plurality of display screens through the at least one selectioninterface. The above data transmission process will be described indetail below with reference to FIGS. 6A and 6B. Here, FIG. 6Aschematically illustrates a flowchart of a method for driving anelectronic label according to another example of the present disclosure,and FIG. 6B schematically illustrates a signal timing diagram of theexemplary method shown in FIG. 6A, for example.

As shown in FIG. 6A, the exemplary method may comprise the followingsteps.

In step S610, serial data signals in a serial data interface areinitialized. An operation in this step is similar to that in step S510,and the initialization operation is performed during an initial periodT0′ shown in FIG. 6B, and will not be repeated here.

Next, in step S620, at least one of a plurality of display screens 210 ₁to 210 _(N) are selected by setting at least one of selection signalsCS₁ to CS_(M) to a valid level, that is, a first level (for example, ahigh level shown in FIG. 6B).

As shown in FIG. 6B, at a certain time after the initial period T0′, thecontroller 2203 sets the selection signal CS₁ connected to the displayscreen 210 ₁ to a high level, and thereby the display screen 210 ₁ isselected. The selection signal CS₂ connected to the display screen 210 ₂remains at a low level, and thereby the display screen 210 ₂ is notselected.

Then, in step S630, the content data is serially transmitted through adata interface DATA under control of a synchronization clock signal CLK.

As shown in FIG. 6B, since only the display screen 210 ₁ is selected,during a first period T1′, only the display screen 210 ₁ may receive thecontent data transmitted by the controller 2203, and the display screen210 ₂ may not receive the content data transmitted by the controller2203. The content data comprises valid content data, a type flag, and anend flag. The type flag is used to indicate that the transmitted data iscontent data, and the end flag is used to indicate the end of datatransmission. The first period T1′ may comprise duration of severalsynchronization clock signal pulses. The content data is transmitted ona rising edge of each of the synchronization clock signal pulses, andthe display screen 210 ₁ receives the content data and stores thereceived content data in its own buffer 210 ₁. A length of the firstperiod T1′ may be determined by a data amount of the content data to bedisplayed on the display screen 210 ₁.

Then, in step S640, the controller 2203 acquires a state signal fed backby the selected at least one display screen during a preset time period.The state signal indicates whether the selected at least one displayscreen has completed data transmission and is ready for refreshing thedisplay.

As shown in FIG. 6B, a state signal of the display screen 210 ₁ is astate signal 1, which is transmitted to the controller 2203 through astate signal output port of the display screen 210 ₁ connected to thecontroller 2203. The display screen 210 ₁ sets the state signal 1 to ahigh level after completing the data transmission with the controller2203. The controller 2203 collects the state signal 1 during a secondperiod T2′.

Next, in step S650, the controller 2203 determines whether all the statesignals of the selected at least one display screen are at a high level,and if so, in step S660, the controller 2203 transmits a control signalserially through the data interface DATA under control of thesynchronization clock signal CLK.

As shown in FIG. 6B, when the collected state signal 1 is at a highlevel, the controller 2203 determines that the display screen 210 ₁ isready for refreshing the display. Therefore, during a third period T3′,the control signal is transmitted to the display screen 210 ₁. Thedefinition of the control signal has been described in the aboveembodiment, and will not be repeated here.

After the control signal has been transmitted, the controller 2203 setsthe selection signal CS₁ to a low level, and the data transmissionbetween the controller 2203 and the display screen 210 ₁ ends.

If the controller 2203 determines in step S650 that not all the statesignals of the selected at least one display screen are at a high level,for example, if the controller 2203 selects two display screens (forexample, the display screen 210 ₁ and another display screen other thanthe display screen 210 ₂) in step S620, and the controller 2203determines that the state signal 1 of the display screen 210 ₁ is not ata high level, the controller 2203 returns to step S630 to retransmit thecontent data. A process of retransmitting the content data has beendescribed in the above embodiments, and will not be repeated here.

Next, in step S670, the selected at least one display screen refreshesthe display according to the received control signal.

As shown in FIG. 6B, during a fourth time period T4, the display screen210 ₁ refreshes its display according to the received control signal,while the display screen 210 ₂ does not refresh the display. As shown inFIG. 6B, the display screen 2101 resets its state signal 1 to a lowlevel at the same time.

Next, in step S680, the controller 2203 determines whether all thecontent data has been transmitted. If a determination result is no, itindicates that there is content data which needs to be transmitted toother display screens, and therefore the procedure returns to step S610to repeat steps S610 to S670, and the operation ends until all thecontent data has been transmitted.

As shown in FIG. 6B, during a fifth period T5, the controller 2203performs an initialization operation on the serial data signals in theserial data interface again, and selects the display screen 210 ₂ bysetting the selection signal CS₂ to a high level. In addition, it shouldbe illustrated that, in one example, after the controller 2203 completestransmission of the control signal to the display screen 210 ₁, and hassets a corresponding selection signal (for example, CS₁) to an invalidlevel, and it is determined that the transmission of the content datahas not been completed, transmission of the content data to a nextdisplay screen may be started. Therefore, in FIG. 6B, although the fifthperiod T5 is shown after the fourth period T4, according to theembodiment of the present disclosure, the fifth period T5 and anexecution time of subsequent operations may be concurrent with thefourth period T4.

According to the embodiments of the present disclosure, when differentcontent is to be displayed on the plurality of display screens 210 ₁ to210 _(N), the content data is sequentially transmitted to all theplurality of display screens 210 ₁ to 210 _(N) through the samesynchronization clock signal interface and the content/control datasignal interface, which may reduce a cost of the system, improve theefficiency of transmission between the controller and the displayscreens, and simplify the operation of driving the plurality of displayscreens.

It should be illustrated that, in the above description, the technicalsolutions according to the embodiments of the present disclosure areshown by way of example only, but it does not mean that the embodimentsof the present disclosure are limited to the above steps and structures.Where possible, the steps and structures may be adjusted and selected asneeded. Therefore, certain steps and units are not elements necessary toimplement the general inventive concept of the embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

The present disclosure has been described so far in connection with thepreferred embodiments. It should be understood that those skilled in theart can make various other changes, substitutions, and additions withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the embodiments of the presentdisclosure. Therefore, the scope of the embodiments of the presentdisclosure is not limited to the specific embodiments described above,but should be defined by the appended claims.

I/we claim:
 1. An electronic label, comprising: a plurality of displayscreens; a repeater configured to receive content data to be displayedon the plurality of display screens and distribute the content data to acommunicator according to a signal strength between the repeater and thecommunicator; the communicator configured to receive the content datafrom the repeater; and a controller comprising a serial data interfaceand configured to transmit, through the serial data interface, thecontent data to be displayed on the plurality of display screens and acontrol signal generated by the controller for controlling the pluralityof display screens to the plurality of display screens respectively, soas to control the plurality of display screens to display the respectivecontent data received according to the control signal.
 2. The electroniclabel according to claim 1, wherein the serial data interface comprises:at least one selection interface configured to select at least one ofthe plurality of display screens; a clock interface configured totransmit a synchronization clock signal to the plurality of displayscreens; and a data interface configured to serially transmit thecontent data to be displayed on the plurality of display screens and thecontrol signal to the plurality of display screens under control of thesynchronization clock signal.
 3. The electronic label according to claim2, wherein the controller is further configured to: select the pluralityof display screens through the at least one selection interface at thesame time in response to the content data to be displayed on theplurality of display screens being the same; and sequentially select atleast one of the plurality of display screens through the at least oneselection interface in response to the content data to be displayed onthe plurality of display screens being different.
 4. The electroniclabel according to claim 2, wherein a number of the at least oneselection interface is less than or equal to a number of the pluralityof display screens.
 5. The electronic label according to claim 2,wherein when a number of the at least one selection interface is lessthan a number of the plurality of display screens, and selection signalstransmitted through the at least one selection interface are encoded anddecoded to generate a selection signal corresponding to each of theplurality of display screens.
 6. The electronic label according to claim1, wherein each of the plurality of display screens comprises a bufferconfigured to store content data received from the controller to bedisplayed on the display screen.
 7. The electronic label according toclaim 1, wherein the display screens are electronic ink screens, and theelectronic label further comprises a booster circuit connected to theelectronic ink screens and configured to power on and power off theelectronic ink screens.
 8. The electronic label according to claim 7,wherein the booster circuit is further connected to the controller, andis controlled by the controller to power on and power off the electronicink screens.
 9. The electronic label according to claim 1, wherein thecontent data comprises a type flag and an end flag, wherein the typeflag is used to indicate whether the transmitted data is content data ora control signal, and the end flag is used to indicate the end of datatransmission.
 10. The electronic label according to claim 1, wherein thecommunicator is further configured to receive control instructions forman application installed on a mobile phone, and wherein the at least oneof the plurality of display screens is to be controlled according to thecontrol instructions.
 11. The electronic label according to claim 1,further comprising: a charger interface configured to charger theelectronic label.
 12. A method for driving the electronic labelaccording to claim 1, comprising: receiving, by the repeater, contentdata to be displayed on the plurality of display screens; distributing,by the repeater, the content data to the communicator according to asignal strength between the repeater and the communicator; receiving, bythe communicator, the content data from the repeater; transmitting, bythe controller, through the serial data interface, the content data tobe displayed on the plurality of display screens and a control signalgenerated by the controller for controlling the plurality of displayscreens to the plurality of display screens respectively; anddisplaying, by the plurality of display screens, the respective contentdata received according to the control signal.
 13. The method accordingto claim 12, wherein the serial data interface comprises a clockinterface, a data interface and at least one selection interface, andwherein transmitting, by the controller, through the serial datainterface, the content data to be displayed on the plurality of displayscreens and a control signal generated by the controller for controllingthe plurality of display screens to the plurality of display screensrespectively comprises: selecting at least one of the plurality ofdisplay screens through the at least one selection interface;transmitting a synchronization clock signal to the plurality of displayscreens through the clock interface; and serially transmitting thecontent data to be displayed on the plurality of display screens and thecontrol signal to the plurality of display screens through the datainterface under synchronous control of the synchronization clock signal.14. The method according to claim 13, wherein selecting at least one ofthe plurality of display screens through the at least one selectioninterface comprises: selecting, by the controller, the plurality ofdisplay screens at the same time through the at least one selectioninterface in response to the content data to be displayed on theplurality of display screens being the same; and sequentially selecting,by the controller, at least one of the plurality of display screensthrough the at least one selection interface in response to the contentdata to be displayed on the plurality of display screens beingdifferent.
 15. The method according to claim 14, wherein: the datacontent transmitted by the controller through the data interface to bedisplayed on the selected at least one display screen is seriallyreceived by the at least one display screen under the synchronouscontrol of the synchronization clock signal in response to thecontroller sequentially selecting at least one of the plurality ofdisplay screens through the at least one selection interface, until thecontent data to be displayed on the plurality of display screens issequentially received by the respective display screens.
 16. The methodaccording to claim 13, wherein a number of the at least one selectioninterface is less than or equal to a number of the plurality of displayscreens.
 17. The method according to claim 16, wherein when the numberof the at least one selection interface is less than the number of theplurality of display screens, and the method further comprises: encodingand decoding selection signals transmitted through the at least oneselection interface to generate a selection signal corresponding to eachof the plurality of display screens.
 18. The method according to claim12, wherein each of the plurality of display screens comprises a buffer,and wherein before the plurality of display screens display therespective content data received according to the control signal, themethod further comprises: storing, by the plurality of display screens,the content data received from the controller to be displayed thereon inthe respective buffers.
 19. The method according to claim 12, whereinthe content data comprises a type flag and an end flag, wherein the typeflag is used to indicate whether the transmitted data is content data ora control signal, and the end flag is used to indicate the end of datatransmission.
 20. The method according to claim 12, further comprising:receiving, by the communicator, control instructions form an applicationinstalled on a mobile phone; and wherein the at least one of theplurality of display screens is to be controlled according to thecontrol instructions.